Advice — william m akers

Your Rewrite: 3 Angles of Attack

Posted by William M Akers on

"The first draft of everything is shit." -Ernest Hemingway Hemingway, charming as ever, was correct. Everybody's first draft is shit. Even his. Yours too! You have to rewrite and rewrite and rewrite until you nail it. Then you stop. The good news is, you can fix just about anything. It only takes elbow grease and time. "I'm not a very good writer, but I'm an excellent rewriter." -James A. Michener "Hear hear!" -William M. Akers After your idea, rewriting is the single most important thing. If you've got a good idea, no matter how lousy your first draft is, you...

Read more →

Excerpt from "Your Screenplay Sucks!: 100 Ways to Make it Great"

Posted by William M Akers on

I've been doing exactly what you do, writing, for a long, long time. I've taught and critiqued screenwriters for almost that long, and, lo and behold, I discovered that all beginning writers make the same mistakes. So I wrote a book, a checklist of stuff to do to your script before you send it out. Here's an excerpt from Your Screenplay Sucks!, 100 Ways To Make It Great. I hope it proves helpful as all get out. *** One fine sunny Los Angeles afternoon, I was sitting in an assistant's office, waiting for the producer, and her door was closed....

Read more →